Orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods recorded their biggest drop in seven months in March and a gauge of planned business spending rose modestly, adding to signs of a slowdown in factory activity.

Durable goods orders slumped 5.7 percent as demand fell almost across the board, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday.

That is twice the drop economists expected.

Over at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey digs into and explains the numbers, but the media news here is the Reuters’ headline. No “unexpectedly”; no spin towards whatever good can be plucked from the bad; and all of this coming just two days before the GDP estimate for the first quarter of 2013.

Naturally, though, the news isn’t picking up much traction elsewhere. If the GDP number is as bad as these numbers foreshadow, that client media conspiracy won’t last long.